THE CHANGING
WORKPLACE
• Women have equal protection in the
workplace so why aren’t they as
successful as men?
• In the first year of college, male
graduates earn, on average, $8,000
more than women per year.
• This gap goes from $0.82 the first year
after graduation to $0.69 ten years later.
THE CHANGING WORKPLACE
• Women were being pushed out of the workforce after World War II
and nothing was more glamourous than being an airline stewardess
(1945).
• Stewardesses were adventurous, saw the world, and got to rub elbows with the
elite who were fortunate enough to fly.
• Airlines hired women whom they believed represented ideal
femininity: White, educated, slender, and beautiful.
• In hiring this specific type of woman, airlines were selling women’s
attractiveness to customers using sexual innuendo.
THE CHANGING WORKPLACE
Continental: "We Really Move Our Tails for You"
National: "We'll Fly You Like You've Never Been Flown Before"
Air France: "Have You Ever Done It the French Way?"
Air Jamaica: "We Make You Feel Good All Over"
THE CHANGING WORKPLACE
• Standards of appearance that could disqualify women included
big feet, chubby legs, poor posture, the wrong hair cut, glasses,
acne, short nails, imperfect teeth, not wearing makeup, or any other flaw recruiters could
identify.
• They also had objections to broad noses, course hair, full lips, and hook noses….all of which
have racial biases attached.
• Airlines also terminated women who got married, had children, or reached their early
thirties.
• “If you haven’t found a man to keep you by the time you are 28, then TWA won’t want you
either.” ~Flight Attendant Manager
• Sexual harassment, racism, and poor pay are among other issues experienced.
THE CHANGING WORKPLACE
• In 1964, the Civil Rights Act had passed and stewardesses began to file the 100 lawsuits
that would be filed on their behalf over the next 18 months.
• Companies discrimination practices slowed but men still had advantage:
• Benefits, on-the-job training, management positions, and most top positions.
• The most evident example of this in the gender pay gap: the difference between the
incomes of the average man and woman who work full time .
• This gap is persistent across race, education level, geographic location, age, and 200 years of history.
• Women with college degrees will make $713,000 less than the average man in her lifetime.
THE GENDER PAY GAP IS REAL
GENDER PAY GAP BROKEN DOWN
JOB SEGREGATION
Women earn thewith
• Gendered job segregation is the practice of filling majority
occupations
of science
mostly male or mostly female workers.
degrees in Iran and
Saudi Arabia
• 78%
of flight attendants are female and 96% of pilots are male.
Medicine in Russia and
is a female
job
• Jobs areFinland
socially
constructed
in a way that suggests they are best suited for
stereotypical women or men, while other features that would undermine
that idea are ignored.
Computer
science
in
• There is variation in how jobs are
gendered
across
cultures.
Malaysia and Armenia
• In India women make up a largeare
share
of the
construction industry, which makes
female
dominated
sense to them because women are in charge of the home.
JOB SEGREGATION: HOW MUCH
JOB SEGREGATION IS THERE?
• Internationally, the amount of gender segregation in jobs varies.
• To achieve integration in the United States, 34 % of workers would
have to switch to a differently gendered job.
• U.K. 37%, Japan 23%, Canada & Australia 38%, Italy 29%,
Israel 41%.
General
Marcia
Martin
Anderson is the highest• We alsoMajor
see gender
segregation
within
occupations.
ranking
American
inDoctors
the history
• Wait
staff isAfrican
divided by
the type ofwoman
restaurant,
(55% of the
pediatricians
are women
onlymade
15% of
surgeons),
the section
United States
Army.butShe
history
in 2011
as theof a
department store.
first African American woman in the Army’s history to
• Genderachieve
intersects
with
other
to stratify the workforce.
the
rank
ofcharacteristics
major general.
• Race: African American women in the population (6%) vs
•
•
military(33% active duty women).
Immigration: Almost all taxi drivers in NYC are male, 84% are
immigrants.
Sexual orientation: Lesbian and Bisexual women are 10x more likely
to be police officers.
JOB SEGREGATION: CAUSES OF JOB SEGREGATION
• The idea that men and women respond to gender stereotypes when planning, training,
and applying for jobs is referred to as the socialization hypothesis.
• Women in “computer geeky” rooms said they were less likely to consider a computer science major.
• Another factor is the network hypothesis: Hiring often occurs through personal
networks, which are themselves gendered, so hiring is gendered in turn.
• The employer selection hypothesis proposes that employers tend to prefer men for
masculine jobs and women for feminine jobs, slotting applicants into gender-consistent
roles during hiring and promotion.
• The desertion hypothesis sees workers tending to abandon counter-stereotypical
occupations at a higher rate than stereotypical ones.
JOB SEGREGATION: DIFFERENT AND UNEQUAL
• When the occupation of stewardess was feminized, the importance
of the job was downplayed and the subordinate role of supportive
and sometimes sexually playful service was played up.
• We have seen this trend in other professions such as cheerleading, and
clerical work.
• Women’s support work (secretarial) translated into mathematical
analysis, early computer programming, and map-making during
WWII.
• Women held over 60% of the jobs in statistical analysis at the CIA until the
occupation became associated with men and has risen in both prestige and
pay.
JOB SEGREGATION: DIFFERENT AND UNEQUAL
• Because status is connected to the gender of a job, we also find an androcentric pay
scale, a strong correlation between wages and the gender composition of the job.
• Gender composition of a job is the single largest contributor to the gender wage gap.
• More important than unionization, marital status, industry, supply and demand, education, and experience.
• The effect grows larger as occupations become increasingly male or female dominated.
• If we have the feminization of poverty, based on the same concept it might be
reasonable to call the concentration of men in high-earning occupations a
masculinization of wealth.
• In sum, the pay scale is not gendered because these occupations just happen to be ones
that require more education, skill, or experience.
JOB SEGREGATION: THE VALUE OF GENDERED WORK
• Flight attendants are doing a job that is suppose to remain invisible unless needed.
• They have extensive skills and training including first aid, dealing with aggressive people, keeping
people calm, crisis management, combat, and climate specific survival skills just to name a few.
• Passengers do not want to be reminded of this as it reminds them how dangerous flying is.
• These skills remain invisible to us and the work we do see is dismissed as unskilled.
• Flight attendants are also skilled at emotion work: the act of controlling one’s emotions
(being nice) and managing the emotions of others (unpredictable). This is a valuable skill.
• If being nice came naturally, then attendants are just being themselves… we don’t pay people for that.
• To say that because women are naturally good at something, they needn’t be compensated
for it, is a great example of benevolent sexism.
JOB SEGREGATION: THE VALUE OF GENDERED WORK
• Stereotypes of men include being good with their hands, talented at understanding how
things work, and steadfast behind the wheel.
• If these things come naturally to men we can conclude that men would also naturally go into fields
utilizing these traits (surgeons, engineers, truck drivers).
• That’s just how men are, we will pay them for their time, but it’s ridiculous to argue these are skills.
• This is how women’s work is understood, unworthy of compensation as skilled labor.
• The devaluation of feminized occupations is especially acute for care work: work that
involves face-to-face caretaking of the physical, emotional, and educational needs of
others.
• We pay people more to check out coats and wash our cars than we do to take care of our kids.
DISCRIMINATION AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
• The civil rights act of 1964 made discrimination illegal, but enforcing new law meant
going to court, proving discrimination with intent, and creating consequences.
• Sociologist Kristen Schilt interviewed 29 transmen and found that 2/3received posttransition advantage at work.
• Their ideas were taken more seriously.
• Their advice was welcomed instead of dismissed,
• They were “right a lot more”.
• They could do less work and get more credit than they did when they were female.
• They could be less nice without consequences,
• Went from being perceived as overly assertive to “take charge”.
DISCRIMINATION AND
PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
HOSTILE AND BENEVOLENT SEXISM
• Hostile sexism can sometimes take the form of isolation or
deliberate carelessness.
Women in male dominated fields may be left with the
choice of proving they can work like a man (sometimes a
two-man-job) and doing the dirtiest work or getting hurt.
If they refuse that kind of work they get accused of
demanding special treatment.
•
•
• In other cases women are seen as interrupting the boys-will-beboys work relationship that makes working in male-dominated
occupations fun for some men.
Looking at pornography or ogling attractive women is
sexual harassment.
The resentment against women for “ruining” it sometimes
manifests as hostile sexism.
•
•
DISCRIMINATION AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
HOSTILE AND BENEVOLENT SEXISM
• In extreme cases, women are targeted sexually
• Some women are retaliated against or fired when
they refuse to engage in sexual contact.
• Other women are victims/survivors of sexual
violence.
• Sexual harassment is about men reasserting their
•
dominance, not some harmless show of attraction.
When a woman’s presence potentially degrades the
identity of the dominant group, she becomes a
symbolic threat.
Her presence is a threat to men’s self-esteem if
their self-esteem comes from being a man doing
men’s work.
•
DISCRIMINATION AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
HOSTILE AND BENEVOLENT SEXISM
• Discrimination can also be a form of benevolent sexism.
• Men who are trying to be chivalrous end up undermining women’s
career trajectories because it can get in the way of them learning their
job or demonstrating their skills.
• On average, men with housewives are more likely to be discriminatory.
• They are also more likely to be bosses, officers, and managers.
• Companies employing more women are more likely to have
staff that believe women are just as capable.
• The presence of high status female managers brings down the pay gap.
DISCRIMINATION AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
THE DOUBLE BIND
• Men are seen as better leaders and supervisors no matter what qualities are considered
ideal for the job.
• In one study, participants moved the parameters in order to ensure that a male job candidate was
seen as more qualified (the traits were streetwise or formally educated for police chief).
• Both men and women exhibited this bias, but men more so than women.
• The double bind then, tells women that to be successful at their job they must do
masculinity, but to be accepted by her boss and colleagues she needs to do femininity.
• The problem is that feminine women are likeable but incompetent, and the opposite for masculine.
• This can impact women asking for a raise.
• Women who are confident, ask for a raise, and negotiate are evaluated far more negatively, being
penalized 5.5 times more than men no matter how they asked.
DISCRIMINATION AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
INVISIBLE OBSTRUCTIONS
• Sexism and the double bind are part of the invisible barrier between women and
the top positions in masculine occupations otherwise know as the glass ceiling.
• Men enter the workforce with higher rank, better salary, more advancement, and more pay
increase.
• When women do break through the glass ceiling, they often encounter a glass
cliff.
• A heightened risk of failing, compared with similar men.
• Companies tend to promote women in times of crisis, setting them up for failure.
• When women succeed, and they often do, they are “rewarded” and given more fragile/high
•
risk assignments and eventually do fail or burn out from the stress.
Dissatisfaction, feelings of underappreciation, blocked opportunities, discrimination, and
harassment are more significant reason for women leaving the workforce than spending time
with family. It’s no wonder women seem less ambitious.
DISCRIMINATION AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT FOR MEN IN FEMALE-DOMINATED
OCCUPATIONS
• Although men in female-dominated fields are
disadvantaged relative to other men in terms of
wages and gender policing, they are not
disadvantaged in these occupations relative to their
female coworkers.
• Men often face a glass escalator: an invisible ride to
the top offered to white men in a female-dominated
field.
• Gender stereotypes are at work here.
• Positive: men are stronger leaders and better suited for
management.
• Negative: men aren’t really good at feminized work.
PARENTHOOD: THE FACTS AND THE FICTION
• The conflict of work/life balance rests on the ideology of intensive motherhood and the
ideal worker norm: the idea that an employee should have the ability to devote
themselves to their job without the distraction of family responsibilities.
• Employment continues to operate as if workers have domestic wives and those who cant work as if
they do are lesser workers.
• Women are penalized by a loss of wages when they become mothers (motherhood
penalty).
• This gap is larger than the one between men and women.
• Women who become mothers will experience, on average, a 7 percent decline in their wages for
each child.
• Married fathers experience a wage increase (fatherhood premium) of 4-7%.
PARENTHOOD: THE FACTS AND THE FICTION
WORK AND THE DIVISION OF HOUSEHOLD LABOR
• Women often take more time off than men to care for children only to return less
experienced.
• Due to the second shift and specialization, women may embrace being put on a
mommy track: a workplace euphemism that refers to expecting less from mothers,
with the understanding that they are sacrificing the right to expect equal pay, regular
raises, or promotions.
• Fathers often increase their efforts at work believing in the breadwinner role.
• Employers may accept that a woman needs to take time to respond to children and emergencies but
do not accept that men have to do the same.
PARENTHOOD: THE FACTS AND THE FICTION
BELIEFS ABOUT MOMS AND DADS
• Moms face a big problem: their supervisors and coworkers don’t take them seriously as
employees.
• The more motherly a mom is, the more they are devalued.
• Women's disadvantage is not rooted in gender alone, but is strongly related to the
intersection of gender and parenthood.
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